HMI software for a pc

Hello,
I'm looking for HMI software for a pc that is inexpensive. It is going to be used for a personal PLC project using a DirectLogic 06 unit. I plan on using a tablet pc as the HMI. Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Wes

http://www.instanthmi.com/ihmisoftware.htm

Depends on your needs but an HMI may be cheaper, check this out and look at the First Time Buyer option: http://www.hmidirect.com/products/blu300m_blu.htm

Wes,

I agree with Ron. A stand-alone HMI may not cost any more. It will certainly be nice to be able to monitor and modify the DL-06 PLC program with your tablet PC while you also operate the HMI. That is difficult to do if you are using the same PC to also run the HMI.

Automation Direct has some great HMI screens also. The Optimate 420 (guaranteed to work with your DL-06) would be ideal for most home projects. It has a two line text display that can be used to display results or enter setpoints. It has 4 keys and 4 LEDs, all for about $200, including software and cable.

For another $50, you can get the Optimate 640. I have used a bunch of those on an Army project. It is amazing how much you can do with 4 lines of characters, 5 pushbuttons with LEDs, and 3 additional LED indicators, if you get creative. You can set up a menu and use two of the keys to scroll the menu. You can create help menus to tell the user which keys do what. You can use one pushbutton to redefine what the others do. The only limit is your imagination.

Thanks for such prompt replies. Also, thanks for the suggestions about using a stand-alone-hmi. However, I have a regular laptop that I'm going to be programming with and a tablet pc to act as the hmi. I have/want to run some other apps at the same time on the tablet.

InstantHMI's site is a little confusing to me. I'm pretty new with this, so I don't know how many "Tags" I'll need, or what they do actually. There seems to be a lot of options there. Would I just need 1 launchpad and 1 runtime?

Thanks, Wes

Tags are the HMI's interface with the PLC. For every PLC value that you want to view or change on the HMI you will need a tag. For example in your DL-06 program you might have a value in location V2000 that represents "Motor 1 Speed". In you HMI you set up a tag and make its location V2000. When the HMI communicates witht the DL-06, it reads the value of V2000 and moves that value to all its graphics screens that use Motor 1 Speed.

Generally you will want a tag for every PLC used Input and used Ouptut, plus about 100% more for timers, counters, analog values, setpoints, and other internal PLC values.

Yes, on the InstantHMI, you need 1 Launchpad Developoment Software and 1 Runtime software package. Get at least 64 tags, more if you are going to use this for anything other than 1 dedicated project.

Try reading this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCADA

Basically tags are the data points read from and written to in the PLC. Instant HMI has a demo version you could experiment with to determine how many tags you would need.

Thanks again for the info guys. So, it looks like $800 is the least I can get away with spending. That's more than I wanted to spend, however, if I must I must. And, if that's the case, are there other options in the ~$1000 range that you'd recommend?

Thanks, Wes

Wes,

Yes, for $250 you can get a complete HMI with programming software! Why do you have to have it on a tablet PC? What will you have there that you must have for this personal project?

Mainly a GPS app, pdf viewing, and it's removeable. One of the other reasons is this tablet (Fujitsu stylistic) is sunlight readible.

Thanks, Wes

Wes,

Have a look at this site.

http://www.progea.com/eng/products/prodotti.html

Not sure of the overall cost, but you can develop your app and run it for two hours before needing a licence, so at least you can see if it is worth it.

Jon

I found this (DAQFactory), which seems decently priced. Anyone have any experience with it?

http://www.azeotech.com/nproducts.php

Thanks, Wes

You could always write a vb application.
Use either SharpDevelop (http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/) or visual studio express both are free.
Not sure on drivers for AD, but if it uses modbus there are very cheap drivers available (may be even free)

Geoff C,
Thanks for the suggestion. That seems to be beyond my capabilities though. It looks like I would need some pretty good tutorials. I'm pretty green.

Thanks, Wes